To Illuminate the Walls

A precise, perfectionist, half-transparent and elegant fence; a half-transparent coffer constructed of laths which seems to keep a glittering secret treasure underground. That is what the Arab Walls Museum in the historic core of Murcia, designed by ACM (Amann, Cánovas and Maruri) architectural studio, looks like.

Since the building is, by its nature, undoubtedly abstract and does not use figurative means to reveal the archaeological treasure it conceals, it raises an unusual metonymic allusion to what it actually encloses: the fence surrounds the archaeological finds which are under the square, it reveals and exposes to the public the remains of the Arab walls from the 12th century, part of the city’s defence architecture, above which emerged the layers of the walls from the 15th century with the famous La Puerta del Rayal portal, also known as Siete Puertas which used to be one of the main en­trances to the Islamic city – it coincides exactly with the archaeological finds.